AW Beattie offers breakfasts, lunches to public

The student-run A.W. Beattie Career Restaurant is open to the public every Thursday and Friday for breakfast and lunch.

The restaurant, located at the A.W. Beattie Career Center on Babcock Boulevard in Allison Park, serves a different menu selection every week. Breakfast is available from 8:15 to 9:30 a.m. and lunch 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch selections also can be ordered for takeout only 1 to 1:30 p.m.

The menu is updated weekly on the www.beattietech.com.

Guests can enjoy their meal served in the dining room by students of the culinary arts department, said instructor Chef Aaron Yurek.

Guests can end their meal with a dessert or take home fresh-baked bread from the A.W. Beattie Career Center Bake Shop, prepared by the students of the Pastry Arts Department.

Lunches are buffet-style, and Yurek selects the menu based on what students are learning that week.

The lunch buffet costs $8 and includes a main and side dish and soup. Breakfast costs $6.50, but items also can be purchased a la carte for a separate price.

Everything at the restaurant is handled by the students with the instructor’s guidance. Students in the culinary department learn cooking as well as how to serve and work in a high-stress environment, Yurek said. They also learn the soft skills needed to be a chef, including good communication, personal cleanliness and having good attendance, because if students don’t show up, someone else has to do their job, he said.

“It’s not just about cooking but how to work as a team,” he said.

The bakery case is on display in the dining room, along with a dessert table, as a dessert is included with lunch, said Ken Morehead, instructor for the Pastry Arts Department.

The selection can include cookies, puffed pastry items, white and chocolate cake, creme brulee, puddings and hot desserts such as peach cobbler. Students also bake and sell a variety of bread, dinner rolls and English muffins.

The Pastry Arts Department has had to slightly increase prices to reflect the rise in costs for ingredients. But prices are still rather competitive with bread at $1.50 a loaf, a dozen cookies for $4 or a quarter sheet cake for $16. He said they also are open for outside ordering.

The center averages more than 100 customers daily, said Eric Heasley, executive director of A.W. Beattie Career Center.

This is just one way the career center provides real-world experience for its students, Heasley said.

“It’s a great program, one of our most popular, and students receive gainful employment. The program is well-respected,” Heasley said.

Culinary arts skills include food ordering, storing, inventory, food preparation, baking, carving and customer service. All students can get certified in safe food handling, Yurek said.

Morehead said the Pastry Arts Department covers every facet of the pastry arts, including proper measuring techniques and the functions of a commercial bakery.

“There are a lot of things we do that are different than baking at home,” he said.

Students of the culinary arts program also get to complete a three-year food truck project, which they begin their sophomore year. Yurek said this program was instituted two years ago. So those graduating next year will be the first to have completed it.

The project consists of 30 modules, including coming up with food truck ideas, using a specialized oven, learning how to get prospective investors, designing letterhead and business cards, creating menus and food prep lists.

The students team with the advertising design department to help create their food truck look.

Yurek is a former Beattie Tech student, graduating in 2001 from Shaler Area. He said he was a step ahead when he attended culinary school after Beattie, giving him a chance to perfect his skills.

“It really gave me a leg up at the next level,” he said.

Morehead, who has been at Beattie for 22 years, said many pastry arts students go directly to a related job upon graduation, andothers pursue a culinary program at a secondary school.

There are 45 students in the culinary arts program and 25 in the pastry arts program, Heasley said.

A.W. Career Center is an extension of nine local school districts in Allegheny County, including Avonworth, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel Area, Hampton, Northgate, North Allegheny, North Hills, Pine-Richland, and Shaler Area for students in 10th to 12th grades.

The career center offers 20 programs that enable students to be college- and career-ready in their field after high school graduation, according to the Beattie website.

Heasley said the website will contain news about its annual Friday fish fries during Lent.

Morehead said Beattie is returning its popular pastry arts summer camp for youth entering sixth and seventh grades, with this year’s theme “South of the Border,” from June 13 to 16. Details will be posted on the school’s website.